AFRICA-BRICS YOUTH FORUM 2022

Theme: BRICS and African Youth Perspective in BRICS: South African BRICS Presidency 2023

Date: 8 October 2022

Time:

• Africa 12:00 CAT (GMT/UTC+02:00)
• India 15:30 IST (GMT/UTC+05:30)
• Russia 13:00 (GMT/UTC+03:00)
• Brazil 07:00 BRT (GMT/UTC-03:00)
• China 18:00 CST (GMT/UTC+08:00)

Mode: Online

Last Date of Application: 05 September 2022, 23h59 CAT

Link to Apply: Apply Here

About South African BRICSYouth Association

South African BRICS Youth Association (SABYA) is a non-profit organisation registered with the Department of Social Development in South Africa, with the vision of advancing and promoting cooperation in the Global South as a leading voice on youth engagement and participation within BRICS and multilateral platforms. Its mission is geared toward providing youth with the tools and opportunities to participate meaningfully in BRICS relations from an African perspective. Moreover, to create a network of young experts who have the capacity to respond to global challenges for a better world. Furthermore, to strengthen existing linkages/networks, institutional cooperation and people-to-people exchanges within the BRICS and multilateral platforms.

SABYA was founded during the 2018 South African BRICS Presidency with 6 founding directors. Since its inception, the association has seen rapid growth specifically in its programmes and core team. Notably, in early 2021 SABYA consisted of 6 executive team members and by April 2021the team saw an expansion to 17 team members. To date, the association has grown to 48 operational team members, 13 board members and over 700 general members. The association’s mandate is underpinned by its 5-year strategy (SABYA Strategic Plan 2021-2025) with key projects focusing on youth development and civil diplomacy. SABYA participates in various international programmes as a host, partner and participant.

AFRICA – BRICS Relations
The scarcity of disaggregated data at the firm and country levels prevents a comprehensive analysis of the impact of Africa–BRICS cooperation in the three main areas of growth, employment, and structural transformation. There is probably more information on China than on the other four BRICS, yet even for China, data are not robust enough for such analysis. The African Economic Research Consortium (AERC) has sponsored case studies on the impact of Chinese trade, investment, and aid, publishing 10 China–Africa economic relations policy briefs. All the studies report severe data challenges, leading to key findings that are insightful but mainly descriptive and anecdotal. The fifth meeting of the BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) held in South Africa was seen as an opportunity for Africa to strengthen its ties with these major emerging economies. The theme of the summit was “BRICS and Africa – partnerships for integration and industrialization” with the goal to unlock the potential for cooperation between the BRICS and Africa. In fact, Africa has demonstrated huge potential in terms of economic development prospects, abundant natural resources, growing consumer power and favourable demographics. The emergence of the BRICS as major global players has raised hope that a win-win partnership could foster the development of the continent. The partnership between India and Africa, for instance, has significantly promoted the development of small- and medium-scale enterprises on the continent. Meanwhile, Brazil and Russia have been heavily involved in the mining and energy industry in Africa through public-private partnerships.

BRICS Investment in Africa
The BRICS are now Africa’s largest trading partners with trade expected to reach more than the US $500 billion by 2015, with 60 per cent from China. The BRICS are also becoming significant investors in Africa, especially in the manufacturing and service sectors. The development literature encompasses several positions on the degree to which FDI affects economic growth. One view is that it may affect it directly because it contributes to capital accumulation and the transfer of new technologies to the recipient country. FDI may lead to the structural transformation and rapid economic growth of the developing host countries. Others contend that FDI enhances economic growth indirectly where the direct transfer of technology augments the stock of knowledge in the recipient country through labour training and skill acquisition, new management practices and organizational arrangements. FDI thus enhances employment in the recipient country via the newly acquired skills as well as the management and organizational arrangements often referred to as “entrepreneurship” for the host country population.

The Role of Youth in the BRICS Community
People-to-people relationships encourage cross-societal learning and collaboration must transcend beyond surface levels to become a practical reality for people on the ground in order to establish stronger people-to-people ties. Within the BRICS countries, youth are a significant group. To date, the BRICS countries have launched a number of initiatives aimed at reaching out to and integrating young people into society. The BRICS YoungScientists Forum enhanced cross-national education exchange, the BRICSCivil Forum, BRICSYouth Parliamentarians Forum, BRICS Youth Forum, and the BRICSGames are all examples of this. In the BRICScommunity, these projects have been pioneering in building people-to-people ties allowing youth in the bloc to contribute to setting the course of the BRICS community. Youth are typically those aged 18 to 35 in South Africa, 15 to 19 in Brazil,14 to 35 in Russia, 15 to 29 in India, and 14 to 28 in China. They constitute a distinct sub-group known as "liminal agents" in society. This simply means that they are on the cusp of childhood and adulthood, where their political and social subjectivities, or how they see themselves in relation to the world around them, are developed enough to form a coherent identity while remaining flexible enough to navigate and adapt to change and uncertainty. This unique transitional state makes youth vital to the future of a renewed multilateral order which has entities like BRICS at its centre. Youth are adept at learning and innovating, and they both shape and are shaped by the environment around them. They are, however, better able to identify flaws in the way things have traditionally been done because of their open-minded view of the world. While this means that youth are more vulnerable to harmful types of radicalism, it is all the more reason to establish positive channels for youth to harness their energies. Youth's liminal characteristics are key qualities that civilizations and the globe today require as they navigate the uncharted seas of a post-pandemic world.

Purpose:
The purpose of the forum is to establish and strengthen multilateral relations between the African continent and BRICS Nations. In line with SABYA’s mission of strengthening linkages, institutional cooperation and people-to-people exchanges within the BRICS nations, the forum seeks to provide youth with the opportunity to meaningfully participate in BRICS relations from an African perspective and promote collaboration and Intercultural conversation between African and BRICS youth. In building up to the South African BRICS Presidency in 2023, through the forum SABYA seeks to engage youth on fundamental challenges facing youth from Africa and BRICS in order to ensure that key challenges are presented to relevant stakeholders.

Objectives
The objectives of the forum are to:

• Create awareness of BRICS as a bloc in Africa
• Provide a platform for young African and BRICS leaders to participate in global issues
• Ignite an interest in Africa-BRICS relations
• Create a networking platform for networking between young leaders in Africa and BRICS
• Create a platform for youth to gain more knowledge on the opportunities available to them through Africa-BRICS cooperation
• To create a platform for future cooperation and collaboration

Proposed topics for AFRICA-BRICS Forum are:

• Youth Unemployment
• The Reform of Education
• Renewable Energy in BRICS and Africa
• Economic Development
• Food Security - Youth in Agriculture (Agriprenuer)
• Youth Entrepreneurship
• Climate Change
• Technology: Access to Technology in Rural Areas

Target audience

• We are targeting 80-120 participants from both BRICS and African countries. (20 from BRICS) & 100 from African states.
• Youth aged between 18-35years old.
• Young inspirational leaders from Africa and BRICS Countries.
• Young community leaders, youth activists, entrepreneurs, change agents, researchers, academics etc.
• Young people that are interested in Africa-BRICS relations.

Benefits to the participants

• Strong network between young people of Africa and BRICS where the youth and organizations explore the opportunities for collaboration.
• An opportunity to partake and contribute to policy formulation.
• A certificate will be awarded at the end of the forum

More information: https://www.iyesf.com/post/africa-brics-youth-forum-2022